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6990+6970 Trifire on an Antec Signature 850W PSU?

Soldato
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In a moment of weakness I bought a new XFX 6990 graphics card with the intention of buying a Corsair AX1200 PSU, only after I'd bought it I've found myself pretty skint until payday... oops!

So, quick question really - is anyone running a 6990 and 6970 in Trifire on a 850W PSU? Any issues?

I've currently got 2 x 6950s (flashed to 6970, shaders and clocks) that are both modestly overclocked to 925/1425. Was anticipating trying to run the 6990 at the same speed to match it(as they will run at the speed of the slowest card).

I haven't really got much else connected to the PC that draws a great deal of power, a DVDRW, 1 1GB HDD and 2 256GB SSDs, and some case fans.

Thoughts?
 
Don't even think about tri-firing that stuff on anything less than a 1k watt psu.

Cue the 'but I run mine off a 650 watt psu LOL!!' brigade, but let me tell you, it ain't worth the risk.
 
Run the 6990 by itself until you can get the new psu. It might be a bit slower than your current 2x 6950(70)s but you'll be able to have a play with the 6990 to see what speeds you can get, sell the extra 6950 (if that is your plan), and not risk your rig.

Tbh you'd probably be 'ok' with no oc but I wouldn't risk it. My rig+monitor is connected via an APC 1400 UPS rated at 950 Watts and I've never exceeded it. The most I've seen (haven't looked recently with BF3 mind) is about 780 Watts (monitor uses 60).
 
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Ok got the PSU today.

Now I've got the following dilemna - do I just go with 6990+6970 (which would be spaced nicely) or go balls out with quadfire 6990 + 2 x 6970s? If I did that the cards would I believe be spaced very close to eachother.

I don't necessarily need the money from selling one of the 6970s, I would keep it if it would show a demonstrable boost - but I've read elsewhere that Trifire is the sweet spot and Quadfire performance drops off massively?

Motherboard is an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme, with the NF200 chip.
 
Ok got the PSU today.

Now I've got the following dilemna - do I just go with 6990+6970 (which would be spaced nicely) or go balls out with quadfire 6990 + 2 x 6970s? If I did that the cards would I believe be spaced very close to eachother.

I don't necessarily need the money from selling one of the 6970s, I would keep it if it would show a demonstrable boost - but I've read elsewhere that Trifire is the sweet spot and Quadfire performance drops off massively?

Motherboard is an ASUS Maximus IV Extreme, with the NF200 chip.

FYI - only NV runs the clocks at the slowest card the ATI's run them independently however i found that is one was missively OC'd more than the other the heaven benches decreased - guess due to being out of sync?
 
My system pulled 520W max from the socket with gaming (Crysis 2) or benchmarks, so adding another 6970 in there could be possible. But you don't want to be anywhere near the limit of your PSU because you end up with poor efficiency and high stress so as people have said you will want to get a 1000W+ so everything runs better in the worst case scenario.
 
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